Morning the Loss

I knew it might be a bad idea to take him tubing down a creek in the mountains, but I thought what could go wrong. Well, everything went wrong and he is lost in the river and will no longer see the light of day. Gilbert is no more!

Because of the rain yesterday the water was very rough and high and it was very hard for me to hold Gilbert, a camera and the tube, so when I flipped over, I could not get my balance with my hands full. I stumbled a few times before going head first into the water and Gilbert hit a rock and I felt his legs rip off then his head. I knew I only had a torso in my hand so I let go. It put a damper on any fun I could have, I lost a favorite item in my life. I know he's not a person, but he had meaning, and website. I'll probably buy a new one, but he will never be that Gilbert that drunken LSU fans loved to have pictures taken with or the one who almost fell into the riverwalk in San Antonio.

I will miss you, maybe someone will find your head and get freaked out. That would be a great end to a wonderful friend.

Tim Russert

Very few times you can walk into a newsroom and find every person gathered around a couple of televisions, the last time I can remember was 9 11. The reasoning why is we are so jaded it takes an event for us to get pulled away from doing our jobs and today we had one of those events, Tim Russert died from a heart attack. He is not a big dog like Tom Brokaw, but he is near the top in recognized news people. When ever NBC has something political he was always there. I believe most people in America knew who he was. They may not have watched Meet the Press or any other news, yet I guess most would say, "Oh yeah that guy."

On occasion I have been to big events where there are national crews there and most of the time I could careless. I never got a chance to be in the same location as Mr Russert, but I would have tried to find out where he was and walk over to see. For someone like me who doesn't get awe struck by celebrities that's pretty big for me. As a journalist I respected his political skills and ability to get answers out of his interviews. As Tom Brokaw said at the end of his special coverage, NBC news will never be the same. I agree, I am sorry that we will no long have a man like Russert, we may never see someone as his ilk again.

Noooooo!

I know I have not posted for a while and I'm thinking it's because I had a loss. It was very traumatic, My Albino Cory Cat Chi Chi VI died. I know your probably wondering "Why the hell is he upset about a fish dying?" Here's why, I've had that fish longer than I have known The Wife. When I moved to Columbus I set up a fish tank and the one fish my family always buys is an albino cat fish. When I was you we were told that they are great for a tank, they help keep it clean. So we bought one and every time one died, we always got another. We named the first one Chi Chi after one of my dad's coworkers, he had a mustache and it kind of looked like the one on the cory cat.

So the first set of fish one was the cory cat, and then he never died. I moved him from "the ghetto apartment" off of Karl Ave in Columbus to the cheap nicer neighborhood apartment, then I moved into The Wife Condo. He even made the nine hour drive to North Carolina with me (Out of the 9 fish 6 survived the drive, but only 4 lived more than two weeks after that) and then the move to Fried Chicken Dr. He has survived 1 ich attack, 1 for of fin rot, and multiple algae attacks on the tank and one of these attacks lasted for over three months. He never died, he always survived. I thought he was a super fish.

The one thing about albino cory cats is they lay on on the tank floor and have the tendency to look like they are dead. I normally lightly tape the glass or feed the others and he races around the tank like an ADD kid after finding a candy bar, OK like me after I find a candy bar. Then last weekend Chi Chi VI was "playing dead," but my little tricks were not working. I was getting sad because I thought we was dead. I grab the dead fish net and start to scoop him up. He would perk up and try to swim around. I could tell something was up, He was dying. What do I do, make it quick, well quick for me and flush him now, or do I wait and see if it will pass. I choose the latter and two days later he was laying in the middle of the tank and this time he did not move when the net came to scoop him out.

I know he's just a fish and I will probably go out and by a new one, considering I've already bought six others. It's the fact that he has been with me for so long. I'm always moving and nothing seems to be consistent, except for 4 years with a little cory cat named Chi Chi VI. May you rest in peace in that great fish tank in the sky.

Crippling Lose

For the most part Monday was just like any other day. I finished up a shoot and we got back to the station and I was doing some pre-work on the story and I thought "It's just after 8:00pm and Law & Order SVU should be on." I flip over to the USA Network and wrestling is on. Since I work till midnight I haven't watched wrestling in a while. I enjoy wrestling, but I'm not into it as much in the past. Sure if I was in Columbus I'd be going over to MT's house for SummerSlam and then over to King Tom's for Wrestlemania, but at most I'd say I'm a casual watcher.

I continue to watch and something seemed off. Why was Curt Angle in this match? Maybe he came back. Is that Chris Jericho? Wow this must be a big night. Then I see Royal Rumble 2004 in the back ground. "Oh it must be a pre-show thing tonight." As I finished thinking this a graphic popped up In memory of Chris Benoit. WHAT? DID THE CANADIAN CRIPPLER DIE? This is shocking news, out of any current wrestler I'd stop what I would be doing and watch his match. I open up a browser and Google Benoit and early reports of finding him and his family dead in their Atlanta home appears on the screen.

I immediately text the man who would know the most, the biggest Benoit fan, MT. Well, MT did not know about his death and he was stunned. For the rest of the night I left wrestling on and continued to glance over to remember how special Benoit was. He could carry any match and usually his match was one of the most memorable match of the night. One of the biggest matched was the already mention 2004 Royal Rumble. Benoit was the first wrestler into the match and an hour later he was the last man standing. I know it's not real, but a feat that was still amazing. Even his short matched were memorable. He lost the United States Championship to what MT called a shlub and his rematch was a Summerslam. The match lasted about a minute and that might be a little long. The comment made by the group at MT's house that's a long as the match needed to be. Benoit was too good for that "shlub."

It's starting to look like it was a murder-suicide committed by Benoit. I'm hoping this is not the case. I've always heard he was a great family man and this would be devastating. Rest In Peace Chris Benoit the wrestling world has lost a great man.

Bob Evans

I finished up a shoot for July sweeps and I go into the station to dump my video in the system when I see Frank and he drops the bomb on me. "Bob Evans died." As a former Ohioan I was shocked at the news. I knew he was old, but it's Bob Evans. He's restaurants are littered across the state.

For my family though Bob Evans means a little bit more. After my father left the ministry he was hired as a manager for a Bob Evans. He even got to meet him a few times. It does not end there, all but two of my family (my mother and my sister Julie) has worked at a Bob Evans and we joked we could run a store with nothing but us. My Dad can do anything, my brother Steve could run the dish tank and grill, my sister Amy can wait on tables, my sister Christi can host I can do dish tank grill and wait as well.

Two years ago I went to the Bob Evans farm for a ceremony where they named part of a highway after him and got to interview Mr. Evans a few high level executives. He was a wonderful man and seemed full of life. I even mentioned my dad was a salesman that sold cleaning products to a large number of stores to the current head of the company. "He was one of our men?" The executive was not just a suit he was a former manager that new the system and that impressed me about the company Bob Evans created.

So the next time you are wanting breakfast go to Bob Evans order up some sausage gravy and think of Mr. Bob Evans.